The Quiet Decisions That Shape a Company's First Year

The decisions that shape a company's first year are rarely the dramatic ones. They are the defaults: how you invoice, who signs what, where the documents live, what a new hire is told on day one.

Each of these is small on its own. Together they become the operating culture of the business, and they are far harder to change later than to set deliberately now.

We encourage founders to spend a little time on the defaults early. It buys a disproportionate amount of freedom later.